Featuring new paintings fresh from the easel, exhibition news and other stuff from Peter Barker RSMA

Saturday, 4 June 2016

The Pink Hat

Oil on Board, 12 x 17 inches

This is another one I had forgotten about, having done it as a demo last year, I think! It too, was tucked away in a corner of the studio, and I felt it was worth working up into exhibition standard.

On that point, I think it's worth mentioning that some plein air artists tend to leave their work 'as is', and consider working on it in the studio to be taboo. Having run a gallery now for over a year, listening to the public's comments, I have realised that buyers don't give a damn whether a painting was completed on site, or in the studio. All they want when they part with their hard-earned money, is a beautiful piece of art on their walls - that is their ONLY consideration. Re-working a painting and bringing it to a more 'finished' standard should not, in my eyes, be considered a no-no, and after all, we artists want to sell our work, don't we - there is nothing more heartening than to hear from a gallery that your work has sold. It is definitely not prostituting your work to use a photo as an aide memoire - the spade-work is done on site after all. Why I'm telling you I don't know - I should be telling artists this!

Having said all that, to work in the open air is much more stimulating than the comfort of a studio, and nothing compares to the drama of having to fight with changing light, and when you do bring home a 'finished' painting, the sense of achievement is exhilarating.

2 comments:

Having spent some time trawling through your blog searching for (and finding) inspiration I came across this piece and the comments about touching up en plein-air paintings. For a while I have been fairly retiscent about studio 'fiddling' of some of my pochades with the view that after all, it is a true pochade and people should appreciate it as such and if I wanted it 'touched-up' I should jolly-well base a studio piece on it. After reading your comments however and valuing your opinions, it has somewhat changed my feelings towards reworking of some of the pochades (some really do need it), indeed it has been the kick I have been needing because I know a lot of my pochades would NEVER become larger studio pieces as there is always something better around the next corner.

Thanks for your comment Black Rocks and I'm glad my words have been a help to you. There's nothing wrong with leaving pochades as they are, if you can sell them as they are, but if you find you can't sell them, re-working can certainly pay dividends, so good luck with that!